Selling a Private Island SIM

Hi,

A friend of mine who is having personal problems and has not been inworld for a couple of weeks now has asked me to look into how he can go about selling his Private Island SIM.

The SIM is very mature and successful, in that it has been fully landscaped, equipped with rental skyhomes, fully furnished, and is currently full.

Any pointers as to how it could be sold would be most welcome, for example:

a) How and where to advertise the sale
b) How to go about valuing the sim
c) How can the business (as well as the sim) be sold on, as many items are no transfer
d) Anything else I may have missed

Thanks

Vi

Is it on the old tier system or new?

I think you can post it in the land sales and then you transfer it by letting LL know and they take care of the transfer; it is different than selling mainland. LL has to do the transfer themselves and it can take awhile.

With the way land prices are going right now, I would advise your friend NOT to sell just yet.

Having said that, I have also noticed that I very rarely see any mention of private island sims for sale. The last one I remember was way back when Amsterdam was put on Ebay at a minimum asking price of US$20,000.

The vaulation of a sim is not easily done. It depends on its development, facilities, 'fame', traffic, income, what proportion of its 'assets' are transferable, etc.

As a rule of thumb, I would suggest adding together the cost of the sim, the cost of all the development and assets on it, and if it is a sim that gererates income (rental) then 12 months of rental too. That should be a at least a figure to start playing with.

However, it is really down to what someone is prepared to pay for the particular sim.

How to advertise it? I would start in the inworld Classifieds, and the Land for Sale forum here. You could also suggest that your friend contacts the big estate owners, such as Anshe, or Alliez (if I spelt those two right), in case they were thinking of buying more, and the development of the sim in question is compatible with their requirements. If the sim is famous, even a listing on Ebay might work.

There must be someone in the forum who has bought or sold a sim privately, so try rephrasing the question, like: I WILL GIVE L$1000 TO WHOEVER CAN ANSWER THIS.

LOL, good luck

Rock

I recently sold a private island sim.
Fully developed with rentals and 95% full.

I bebopped around to a couple places and asked other island owners if they were interested. They all tried to undervalue it or "push" me with fake figures.

I advertised it in the classifieds. Had a couple lookers. Even had a Paypal transfer of US funds. Then the "buyer" backed out 2 days later and reversed the paypal payment.

Grrrrrrr.

Finally while talking to one of the rentors they expressed interest.

The price was the initial set up cost + the $100 transfer fee to LL + 6 months profit off the rentals. They paid via paypal.

When the money cleared and was in my bank we both, IE the buyer and the current owner, sent a letter to [email]concierge@secondlife.com[/email] stating the islands name, our names, and the fact that we both agreed to the sale and wished LL to transfer ownership.

A month later LL transfered the island.

Badda-Boom-Badda-bing.

Lord, you are a good and trustworthy soul but there has been talk of transfers going awry in that when the funds hit the island owners account, the deal stops there and the buyer is ripped off. There is no protection for the buyer at all in this set up except the integrity of the seller.

Is there another way where PayPal can hold the funds until LL notifies them re: the transfer? Can PayPal serve as an escrow in this way?

I think that all island transfers such as this should go through LL only.
There should be a form to fill out to initiate the transfer with the avatar you wish to sell to and the price you wish to sell it for. Then that avatar gets an email and goes to a page and clicks to buy.

The funds should come out of your account just like other island billing fees, then from your CC if you have no funds in your account. Then the funds minus LL fees would be credited to the sellers US$ balance.

LL could take a small fee for this...oh wait they already charge 100L to transfer so there ya go!

If they can do this sort of service for partners in SL, they can do it for island transfers.

The only other way I would ever sell an island is to have a real life agreement signed and notarized by both parties in case the deal goes sour. How else can you protect yourself?

Hi Vi, I sent you IM in SL maybe U did not receive it. I will be happy to help you, just IM me in world and we can work this out for you. It is not difficult be there are a few things for you to aware of.
Look forward to hearing from you,
Alliez Mysterio